Do routers just "wear out" over time.

I keep getting "no connection" messages, but it's all good when I
apply the default IT helpdesk solution.

It's a Netgear DG834G if that makes any difference.

 

Well, I suppose so, yes. But the MTBF of a piece of electronics with no
moving parts will be a bloody long time in general.

 

Generally true, but sometimes there are manufacturing issues which bring
on failure quicker than one would normally expect. I had a Linksys
router a few years ago that failed after about 2 years, a bit of
googling suggested that many others had the same problem, with a number
of suggestions about poor heat dissipation causing failure of the
ethernet controller chip after 2 years or so.

 

Is it getting very hot when it locks up? I find sitting routers on the
narrow end allows better heat dissipation. Be* provide a little plastic
foot to do this with their Thomson Bebox.

The other thing is your phone line quality. I had annoying reconnections
when I first transferred to Be*'s LLU. The BT phone line between me & the
exchange was the root cause, but BT didn't do anything about it until I
complained about the noise on the voice line.

You'd think so, wouldn't you. However, my tiny little empire in Xerox, well
more of a parish, processed shedloads of returned printed circuits to
upgrade them due to dodgy components. Batches of poorly made capacitors
were favourite.

 

Not really wear out, but the electrolytic capacitors can fail. This will
make it lock up more and more, and eventually fail. Sometimes the PSU
brick will get hot as it tries to cope with the extra leakage current.

I found a DG824 doing just this:

http://www.piglet-net.net/pigblog/?p=702

 

I had a DG834N that eventually started locking up and needed to be left
unplugged for ten minutes or so before it'd reboot.

They do seem to wear out, so to speak. I replaced mine with a dirt cheap
TP-Link and it's turned out to be streets ahead of the Netgear in every
way. Slight quirk with the routing table but other than that absolutely
faultless.

 

you on Be* still? Did you try the Bebox or dismiss it? I'm surprised,
despite it being Thomson, that it seems to work reasonably well. It's
worked with all my kit & all visitors have connected to it with various
wifi devices.

 

I've got it as a spare. Won't throw it away as they reckon they want it
back if ever I leave. It's alright, but not brilliant, which pretty much
sums up Thomson/Speedtouch devices all over.

 

I suppose I should have said usual caveats apply.

 

It seems that pretty much every router I've had from various
manufacturers has packed in after around a year of continuous use. A
power cycle usually restores everything until the next time,
unfortunately the next times get closer and closer together until it's
a daily occurrence or worse.

 

My netgear (same model as OP's, IIRC) worked flawlessly, 24/7, for 4
anna bit years. Only replaced now 'cos the orange VOIP service I'v had
since Feb comes wiv a wireless box of its own.

 

The one I have now is some Netgear cable one, not sure of the model it
came as part of the FTTC trial along with a separate modem. Only had
it a few months so time will tell if it's any better than the various
Linksys, Belkin[1], BT, Solwise etc that I've had up to now.

[1] That failed within a few weeks.

 

I've been through a couple of DG834Gs masquerading as mini Sky boxes.

They do seem to have a problem and mine start to get a "negative"
noise margin (click the Show Statistics button from the router
status page if you can login) and at that point it slows to a crawl
or locks up completely.

This one has been running for about a year and has now started
doing it as well, so I'm tempted to bin it and buy another one...
you can usually pick them up on ebay as Sky routers for under a fiver
and then just reflash them back to DG834Gs in minutes.

The problem is that out of all the routers I've had, the Netgear
interface just seems to have a lot more than the others, and
just *works*, rather than missing all the features I want.

 

Nick, I've got a DG834GT sitting here idle since Orange sent me
a LiveBox, if you want it. It never gave me trouble. You know where I am now.

--
Ivan Reid, School of Engineering & Design, _____________ CMS Collaboration,
Brunel University. Ivan.Reid@[brunel.ac.uk|cern.ch] Room 40-1-B12, CERN
GSX600F, RG250WD "You Porsche. Me pass!" DoD #484 JKLO#003, 005
WP7# 3000 LC Unit #2368 (tinlc) UKMC#00009 BOTAFOT#16 UKRMMA#7 (Hon)
KotPT -- "for stupidity above and beyond the call of duty".

 

In my experience yes. Even though it makes no sense at all.

Fraser

 

That's pretty much my experience so far. Brands tried include, Linksys,
Netgear, Netcomm and D-Link. Even Cisco gear seems to shit itself after
a few years.

Fraser

 

That sounds technical to me.

Talking of which, if I got another, would all my settings remain as
is, or would I need to reinstall everything?

 

I may take you up that, Dr R. Cheers.

 

There's usually an option to back up settings to a file. Then if you
get the same model just restore the backup.

 

Depends on your ISP. With Virgin I had to have a username & password stored
in the ADSL modem/router so that it would authenticate. With Be* you just
plug any old modem/router into the BT socket and it just works.

You shouldn't need to change anything on your PC.

You can tinker with settings on the router to do "stuff" but I doubt you
would need to bother yourself with that shit.